II.
Spring solstice and light lingers in peach milk skies
leaking violet into the soft violence of horizon;
and the cornflower blue twilight lasts forever
and dawn calms the ache and the stretch
and it will be warm soon and the concrete will thaw.

excerpt from “Give & Calm.” look forward to more excerpts and more moons leading up to the book release, first week of May.

I’m Mandy. I’m two weeks away from my last semester in my MFA program for Creative Writing and Publishing Arts. Right now, I’m prepping my manuscript for said last semester. In the next three months, I’m going to finalize that manuscript, design a book from cover to cover, publish it, and promote it ……. Geez.

so I’m going to try to chronicle this last semester here. Already on here are a lot of old drafts of poems. Some of them might even be in my book!

In two weeks, I’ll be working three jobs and starting Thesis, so I’ve been working hard at revising and writing and designing while I still have room to breathe. Thus far, I have 32 poems that I have tentatively separated into three sections and ordered. This might end up being fruitless work, but it kept me amused during two days of 15 degree weather spent without leaving the warmth of apartment or changing out of pajama pants.

Pants are overrated.

so, Look forward to updates on my manuscript, possible designs, handmade elements, and how much I love my fellow poets that I have the pleasure of being in workshop with! I can’t wait to gush.

how silly my moon slip
into down my lips
pocus wrap in yours
and I’m sorry about
celestial ache and howl
and how are you
getting down from here?
will you climb cloud
humid spilling? crawl?
beg the ailing air
to backbend into ladder
place your foot in the
spinal gnocchi rung
stumble out of this skin